Official Programme Jury

Jury President

Peter Ho-Sun Chan

Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Director (Hong Kong SAR)

Peter Ho-Sun Chan is a Chinese film director, producer and screenwriter. Regarded as one of the most accomplished and successful Hong Kong filmmakers in recent history, Chan has directed 18 films, including the critically acclaimedComrades, Almost a Love Story (1996), Perhaps Love (2005), The Warlords (2007), American Dreams in China (2013) and Dearest (2014).

Born in Hong Kong, Chan is the son of Hong Kong film director turned newspaper columnist Chan Tung Man and mother Lam Man Ying. He spent his childhood years in the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Hong Kong, his teen years in Bangkok, Thailand, and studied film in Los Angeles during the early 1980s.

After working on several films as assistant director, Chan made his directorial debut with the award-winning Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye in 1991. Chan followed Alan and Eric with a string of popular box office successes, including He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father (1993), Tom, Dick and Hairy (1993), and He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994).

In 1996, Chan received international acclaim for Comrades, Almost a Love Story), a film about two mainland Chinese immigrants who fall in love and drift apart in pre-handover Hong Kong. The film swept the 16th annual Hong Kong Film Awards, winning an unprecedented nine awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress for Maggie Cheung.

In 1999, Chan directed his first US production in coordination with DreamWorks SKG, 1999’s The Love Letter starring Kate Capshaw, Tom Selleck and Ellen DeGeneres.

In 2000, Chan established Applause Pictures, a company dedicated to producing high quality Pan-Asian films intended primarily for Asian audiences. Films produced by Applause Pictures include Jan Dara (2001), One Fine Spring Day (2001), The Eye series (2002, 2004, 2005), Three (2002), and Three…Extremes (2004).

In 2005 he directed Perhaps Love, a musical love story set in Shanghai and Beijing starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jacky Cheung and Zhou Xun. The film closed the 62nd Venice Film Festival, and was Hong Kong’s official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards.

After Perhaps Love came the historical war epic The Warlords (2007), starring Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. The gritty tale of brotherhood and betrayal set during the Taiping Rebellion in 1860s China garnered eight Hong Kong Film awards and three Golden Horse awards.

Chan’s recent films are stories of hope, friendship and matters of the human heart, themes characteristic of his early work: American Dreams in China (2013) and Dearest (2014), based on the true story of a divorced Chinese couple dealing with the abduction of their son.

Chan’s more recent film projects include producing Iwai Shunji’s first Chinese language title Last Letter in 2018, and directing Li Na, a biographical drama of the first Asian tennis player to win a Grand Slam title.